Power operated hatch cover



Dec. 13

Filed Feb. 9, 1946 E. M. REER ET AL POWER OPERATED HATCH COVER l I I '2Sheets-Sheet l 2 -iINVENTOR.S' DWARD M. G/PEER BY JEAN 17556751? IAJTUKNBY .Dec. 13, 1949 E. M. GREER ET AL POWER OPERATED HATCH COVER 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 9, 1946 m .y W M mam m fl F N 5 [MM A ANJ MmEJ w/ iatented Dec. 13-, 1949 POWER OPERATED HATCH COVER Edward M.Greer, .Hempstead Township, Nassau County, and Jean Mercier, New York,N.

said Edward M. Greer 'assignor to Greer Hydraulics, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.

Application February 9, 1946, Serial No. 646,696

9 Claims.

This invention relates to power operated doors of all kinds and moreparticularly to doors having a motivating device and controls mountedwithin the doors to move with the doors.

With marine hatch door covers since the hatchway lies in a horizontalnecessarily very heavy there is a great deal of trouble in lifting thesedoors out of the hatchway opening, usually the hatch doors are liftedwith a derrick or hoist and stacked somewhere out of the Way. When thedoors are placed over the hatch opening, it is necessary to support themat opposite ends of each door with a cross beam.

An object of this invention is to provide one or more doors in which aretracting device is integral with the door or doors.

A further object of this invention is to provide pairs of doors thatcontain a retracting device in which all components are integral withthe doors, except the power connection necessary to supply the force toa motivating device.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a plurality ofdoors that are moved to open or closed position by hydraulic motors,which are supplied with fluid under pressure from a hydraulic pump thatis in turn driven by an electric motor and in which all components aremounted within the doors.

Another object of this invention is to provide a pair of pivotallyjoined doors in which one end of the pair of doors is hinged to anopening and the opposite end of the pair of doors is supported onrollers mounted on horizontal supporting beams and in which two opposedhydraulic cylinders are mounted, one in each door, their pistons beingconnected to the pivotal member between the doors to provide a closureof the doors when the pistons are at one end of their stroke and a fullopening of the doors when the pistons are at the opposite end of theirstroke.

A further object of this invention is to provide one or more pairs ofretractable doors that are pivotally mounted on one side of a horizontalopening and supported by rollers on the opposite extremities of eachpair of doors and in which the motivating mechanism is self containedwithin the doors A still further object of this invention is to provideone or more pair of retractable. doors that are inter-connected andfurther may be extended to an aligned position or retracted to a side byside parallel relationship.

A further object of this invention is to provide one. or more selfclosing doors in which the actuating system is mounted integral with theplane and the doors are doors, and in which theactuating system isconnected to a hinge element intermediate of each pair of doors.

A .still further object of this invention is to provide a poweractuating device mounted in one or more pair of hatch door covers with asingle control to retract said doors to a side by side parallelrelationship and to extend said doors to an aligned horizontal positioncovering said hatch.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a power storagedevice mounted in one of a pair of hatch door covers to provide themotivating force to retract said doors to an open position and to extendsaid doors to a closed position.

.Other objects may be apparent by referring to the accompanying detaileddescription and the drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a portion of a hatch cover incorporating thefeatures of this invention,

Fig, 2 is a cross sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1,

,Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the power system mountedwithin the doors, and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a typical hatch door cover.

Referring to the figures there are illustrated a plurality of doors 38in Figs. 1 and 2, horizontally mounted over a hatch opening 31. Thehatch doors 30' have a power motivating device 22 mounted therein. Thepower motivating device 22 is illustrated in Fig. 3 which is comprisedof a fiuid reservoir l in which a filter is buiit therein. A supply lineX is connected to the outlet of the filter 2 and is provided with a shutoi'f valve 3s The supply line X is, in turn, connected to a fluid pump4. The pump c is driven by an electric motor 5 and said motor 5 iscontrolled by a motor starter 6 Which is, in turn, controlled by aswitch I. The starter S is also opened or closed by a pressure switch 8.The pressure switch 8 is connected by means of a fluid line to apressure output line Y of the pump 4. The pressure output line of thepump 4 is provided with a check. valve 9 to permit fluid flow in onedirection. An accumulator 9 of any standard. design is provided such asthat illustrated to store fluid under pressure, in which a shell isprovided with a deformable gas chamber to allow storage of fluid in saidshell at a predetermined pressure. This accumulator 9- isconnected tothe pressure output line Y of the pump 4. Another check valve In isrovided in the pressure line Y and that is, in turn. connected to aselector valve I3. An auxiliary accumulator 52 of similar design toaccumulator e is connected through a manual check valve H to the samepressure line Y connected to the selector valve It. A relief valve 2i isconnected to the same pressure line Y to limit the pressure that may bestored in accumulator I2 or supplied to the selector valve I3. A gaugeIt is provided to insure the storage of an operating fluid pressure. Theselector valve i3 is also connected by means of areturn line Z to thefluid reservoir.

The selector valve I3 isof a standard design having four ports asindicated in Fig. 3. Poppet valves control the flow of fluid througheach port and the poppets are controlled to be opened or closed by themanually operated means [3A illustrated. Thus, the manual control E3Amaybe placed in either of two positions. When in the position Iindicated, the aligned ports will be opened to each other, thus thefluid from the line Y will pass directly through the valve to a line 23,while the fluid in a line 24 will be connected directly through thevalve l3 to the line Z. Likewise, when the manual member is moved to itsopposite position 2, the diagonally positioned ports will be connected.Thus, the fluid from line Y would flow through to line 24 and the returnfluid in line 23 would flow through to the return line Z. A plurality ofhydraulic actuating cylinders it are conneoted to the lines 23 and 24,the line 24 being connected to one end of all cylinders, while the line23 is connected to the opposed end of all cylinders. A thermal reliefvalve I is connected to the lines 23 and 25 so that when an' excessivepressure is produced in either line the fluid will be relieved through areturn to the line Z. The thermal relief valve is similar inconstruction to an ordinary relief valve, such as that illustrated at 2i. The pressure switch 8 is provided to break the circuit through thestarter E to the m tor 5, thus an indicating light 20 may be providedwhich will be on as long as the motor is operating, and will be offwhenever the pressure is excessive or whenever the switch I is opened.'The reservoir I is also provided with a drain valve I1.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 there is illustrated a hatch opening 3ihaving a cross beam 32 at either side thereof. A plurality of hatchdoors 3% are positioned in alignment over the-hatch opening 3%. Thedoors 38 run the length of the opening 31 and bear on the cross members32. The plurality of doors are hinged to one side of the opening 3i by ahinge member 33 afifixed to the jamb of the opening 3i. provided with anintermediate pivotal or articulating member 34 at either end of each.pair of doors positioned between each succeeding pair of doors 35]. Ahinge 35 is provided between each succeeding pair of doors. Thearticulating or pivotal member 34 is mounted by means of a plate 36 tothe lower side of the doors 3B and has a pivotal pin 3'? theret'hrough.The plate 34 is triangular in shape being provided with three apertures38, 3t and it. The pin 37 passes through aperture 38 and a pair ofopposed cylinders M are mounted in opposed relationship within the doors36. They'may be supported by structural members of the door in anyfashion, such as illustrated in Fig. 2 so that the piston is free tomove and the cylinder is held in a fixed position within the door ea. Inthe aligned position, as indicated in Fig. 2, the cylinder I 4 must haveits piston in aretracted position and thus the piston rod 4| isconnected by means of a pin 42 to the aperture The doors 36 are 5 'door35 is hinged or pivoted at 33 the first door will be moved upward in apivotal movement until the pistons 4i have completed their extendedstroke and the door 39 has reached the position indicated in dottedlines and at the same time the adjoining door 39 will have reached aparallel position indicated in dotted lines. It will be noted that theadjoining door is provided with a roller 45 which bears on the crossbeam 32, thus during the retracting action the roller moves from itsposition indicated in Fig. 2 to the dotted position indicated. It isapparent, referring to Fig. 1, that a second pair of doors 30 hinged tothe first pair by the hinge 35 with the same articulating mechanismmounted therein would perform in similar fashion to fold in the sameparallel relationship indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 1 the reservoir I is mounted integral with the door39. Likewise, the motor 5 and pump 4 are supported on or mounted intothe door 30 and the accumulators 9 and I2 are strapped within the door30 by structural bands or other supporting means and the component partsillustrated in Fig. 1 are connected to perform, as shown in Fig. 3.

In operation the reservoir I is provided with the hydraulic fluid to beused and the motor 5 and its starter 6 are connected by means of anextension line 50 to a plug 5| which may be connected to an externalsource of power. The accumulators Q and I2 [are filled at the air valveend with a gas at a predetermined pressure. The mechanism is now readyto function. For operation the switch I is closed causing the motor 5 tobe operated and the pump 4 to be ready to pump fluid to the system. Theshut-off valve 3 is opened, thus the fluid from the reservoir I passingthrough the filter 2 will be supplied; to the pump 4 and the pump 4 willsupply fluid under pressure through the check valve I9 to the accumulator ll storing fluid pressure within the accumulator 9 and,likewise, the fluid pressure passing through the check valve EU will bestored in the accumulator I2 passing through the manual check valve Ii.The fluid pressure in the supply line Y will pass to the selector valveI3 where it is controlled by the manual means illustrated, thus, in oneposition the fluid pressure passes through the line 24 to the same endof all hydraulic cylinders it connected to the line 24, thus, thecylinders I 4 will have their piston rods 4| extended which, as alreadyexplained, will cause the doors 3% to be folded into a retractedposition. During this stroke of itlhe piston I4 the fluid in theopposite side of the piston M will be expelled through the line 23 towhich all pistons I4 are connected and, thus, the return fluid will passthrough the selector valve I3 to the return line Z which, during theoperation of the pump 4, will cause the fluid to be circulated back intothe supply line Y. It is apparent that the doors 30 may be extended fromtheir open position, indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2, to a closedaligned position by reversing the selector valve I3, thus the fluidunder pressure from line Y will be redirected to the line 23 and thus tothe opposite end of the cylinders l4 causing the piston rods 4| to beretracted, thus causing the doors to move outward on the rollers 45until they reach an aligned :position, as indicated in Fig. 2. It is,likewise, true that during this stroke of the piston 4| 'rthe fluid onthe opposite side of the piston in each cylinder 14 will pass throughthe line 24 back through the selector valve E3 to the return line Z inthe same fashion as already described. Any excessive heat developed inthe operation of this device which causes a rise in fluid pressure inline 23 or 24 will be relieved through the thermal relief valve l5. Thismaxi-mum pressure is necessarily above the operating pressure used incylinders I4.

It is apparent that any defect in the system, such as the reservoir 3!being drained by the fluid supply demanded or the failure of the motor 5to operate would leave the doors 30 in an inoperative position.Therefore, the storage of an operating pressure in the accumulator l2permits the full retraction and full extension of the doors 30 byoperating the manual check valve l I so that the pressure stored thereinmay :be supplied through the selector valve IS in the fashion alreadydescribed.

Various groupings or pairs of doors may be used to provide the necessarycover according to the size of the hatchway to be covered. For instance,a small hatchway may be covered with a single door having a pivotalplate associated with it, or as described a pair of doors may be used. Alarger hatchway may be covered with two pair of doors, all operatingfrom the one side, and a still larger hat-chway may be covered by threepair of doors, in which two pair operate from one side, while a singlepair operates from the opposite side, and so it is possible to group thepairs to be retractable and extendable over most any size hatchway.

Another feature of this invention is the fact that a single door mayhave the complete power system mounted therein. In such case there willbe a single motivating means and a pivotal actuating plate associatedwith the door. Also one or more doors are removable as an operativeunit, except for the hinge pins to mount them to the. hatchway. Whenremoving a single door the pivotal pins to connect it to thearticulating members between each door are removed, and the plug that isnormally connected to a power line is disconnected, the door or doorsmay then be quickly removed for repair or maintenance of the componentparts mounted therein. A complete unit having the same component partsmay be quickly installed with the same pivotal pins for continuedoperation of the hatchway cover.

A further feature of this device is the positioning of the main hingefor the group of doors. The hinge may be mounted a suflicient space backof the supporting framework to permit the doors to be retracted to anested relationship clear of the opening.

Various modifications of the articulating members may be used withoutdeparting from the spirit of this invention. Various forms of powerdevices may :be incorporated within the doors to operate with thearticulating members that are mounted between the pairs of doors withoutdeparting from the spirit of this invention, thus various changes andmodifications may be employed to accomplish a similar result withoutdeparting from the spirit of this invention, and thisinvention shall belimited only by the prior art and the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a door articulating system, a door, an articula'ting elementmounted to one side of said door, a motivating means integrated withsaid door, said motivating means being connected to said articulatingelement, said door being pivotally mounted in an opening, an externalconnection to supply power to said motivating means, said motivatingmeans including means to swing said door to either of two extremes, openor closed.

2. In a, door articulating system, a door, an articulating elementmounted to one side of said door, a motivating means integrated withsaid door, said motivating means being connected to said articulatingelement, said door being pivotally mounted in an opening, a powerstorage means for said motivating means, mounted integral with saiddoor, said motivating means including means to swing said door to eitherof two extremes, open or closed.

3. In a door articulating system, the combination including a pair ofdoors, an articulating element mounted between the doors, a fluid motormounted in each door in opposed relationship, power means integratedwith said doors to supply the fluid motors with a motivating force, saidfluid motors being connected to the articulating element, an externalpower connection to supply said power means, said motivating meansincluding means to swing said doors to either of two extremes, open orclosed.

4. A retractable cover for an opening which comprises a plurality ofpairs of doors retractable and extendable from a common hinge attachedto one side of said opening, a support on each end of said opening,articulating elements mounted between the doors of each pair, hingesmounted between each pair of doors, a pair of rollers for each pair ofdoors mounted one on each end of the door at the corner farthest fromthe hinge about which that pair is pivoted and bearing on said supportsto roll in alignment with the configuration of said opening, a fluidmotor mounted in each door and positioned in opposed relationship ineach pair of doors and connected to the said articulating elementmounted been the associated pair of doors, power means integrated withsaid doors to supply the fluid motors with a motivating force, anexternal connecting element to supply said power means, switching meansto control the motivating force to the fluid motors to operate the doorcovers in one direction to open, and means to reverse said switch meansto operate said door covers in a reversed direction to close same.

5. In a folding door of the type having a pair of panels with one edgeportion of one panel hinged at the doorway and the opposite edge portionof the other panel guided in a single plane, articulating elementssecured to the other edge portion of the panels, a motor integrated,with each panel and connected to an associated articulating element andsaid motors mounted to operate in opposed relationship, a two way switchand a power source to control and operate said motors to selectivelycause the panels to extend into an extreme position in alignment in thesingle plane.

6. In a folding door of the type having a pair of panels with one edgeportion of one panel hinged at the doorway and the opposite edge portionof the other panel guided in a single plane, articulating elementssecured to the intermediate edge portion of the panels, a pair of fluidmotors integral with each panel and connected to an associatedarticulating element and said motors 7 mounted in each panel to operatein opposed relationship, a power unit and a two-way switch thereinintegrated with said panels to control and operate said fluid motors toselectively cause the panels to extend into an extreme position inalignment in the single plane.

7. In a folding door of the type having a pair of panels with one edgeportion of one panel hinged at the opening and the opposite edge portionof the other panel guided in the configuration of the opening,articulating elements secured to the intermediate edge portion of thepanels, a pair of motors integral with each panel and connected to anassociated articulating element and said motors mounted in each panel tooperate in opposed relationship, a power unit and a two-Way switch andintegrated with said panels to control and operate said motors toselectively cause the panels to extend into an extreme position coveringthe opening.

8. In a folding door of the type having a pair of panels with one edgeportion of one panel hinged at the side of the opening and the oppositeedge portion of the other panel guided in the plane or planes of theopening, articulating elements secured to the intermediate edge portionof the panels, a pair of motors integral with each panel and connectedto an associated articulating element and mounted to operate in opposedrelationship, a power source and a two-way switch therein to control andoperate said motors, to selectively cause the panels to extend into theconfiguration of the closed position.

8 9. In a folding door of the type having a phi rality of pairs ofpanels with one edge portion of the first pair of panels hinged at theside of the opening and the succeeding pair of panels hinged to theopposite edge portion of said first pair of panels and said oppositeedge guided in the plane of the opening, said succeeding pairs of panelshaving their opposite edge portion similarly guided in the same plane ofthe opening, pivotal elements secured to the middle joint of each pairof panels, a pair of motors integral with each panel and connected to anassociated articulating element and said motors mounted in each panel tooperate in opposed relationship, a power unit and a two-way switchtherein integral with said panels to control and operate said motors toselectively cause the panels to fold into a nested open position.

EDWARD M. GREER.

JEAN MERCIER. 1

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1 .58l.832 Blockhan Apr. 20, 19261,832,966 Cook Nov. 24, 1931 2,408,739 Dawes Oct. 20, 1945

